"There are however, indications that the birth of the Messiah without sexual intercourse

originated not in Rome but in Ancient Egypt. Isis is said to have conceived her son Horus

by using the phallus of Osiris, her brother and husband, after his death and dismember-

ment. This posthumous sequence of events is illustrated on the walls of the Osiris tem-

ple at Abydos, in Upper Egypt.

A later development of the legend rid it of its physical connotations and related the

pregnancy of Isis to a cosmic force. Spell 148 of the Coffin texts, which is concerned with the announcement to Isis that she is pregnant with Horus, has been interpreted as: 'The crocodile star (MeSSeH) strikes...Isis wakes pregnant with the seed of her brother Osiris.'